Seattle Ranks #3 For Best Market To Be An Agent: Featuring Jennifer Lind, VP of Business Strategy

Seattle is the third best place in nation to be a real estate agent

February 18, 2016

Marc Stiles, Staff Writer

Puget Sound Business Journal

If you’re a real estate agent in Seattle, you’re in the right place.

A new report from personal finance website WalletHub ranks the city the third best place in the country to be a real estate agent. Denver and Irvine, California ranked first and second, respectively. Portland ranked sixth.

WalletHub analysts compared the 150 most populated cities, and looked at 13 metrics, ranging from sales per agent to annual median wage for real estate agents. The metrics were then weighted.

The results are what market observers would expect. Seattle scored second in the number-of-days-on-the-market category and eighth in the study’s “housing-market health index.” More information about the WalletHub study is here.

Data and observations back up the study. The number of new brokers getting into the business in Washington has more than doubled since 2012, according to Jennifer Lind, vice president of business strategy for real estate company John L. Scott.

“There is a lot of buzz around real estate right now, and the market in our area is especially exciting,” she said.

The largest recruitment source of new brokers is the company’s current brokers. “Some of our best new brokers have been someone’s waiter, teacher or hairdresser, and someone planted the seed by saying, ‘You know, you would be great in real estate,’” Lind added.

The company is excited that millennials are entering the business. One is a former Los Angeles Police Department Officer Rio Ingram, who is in the running for the National Association of Realtor’s 30 Under 30 award.

“This industry offers a lot of what (millennials) are looking for, such us great income potential, opportunity to work and give back to their communities, collaboration, freedom, and an entrepreneurial spirit,” Lind said.

Currently, there are 33,413 real estate brokers and managing brokers in Washington, according to the state Department of Licensing. The Seattle King County Association of Realtors has a little over 6,000 members.

In the Seattle metro area, the mean income for agents in 2014 was $47,500, and $88,670 for managing brokers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.